Patrick O'Leary
Patrick O'Leary has garnered a broad base of fans for his fiction
based upon his novels Door Number Three, The Gift and The Impossible Bird plus his collection
Other Voices, Other Doors. The success of his writing
has encouraged him to continue his craft while working as
an Associate Creative Director at Campbell-Ewald Advertising in Warren, Michigan.
He makes his home in Detroit with his wife and sons.

All books use blurbs and teasers to sell them. Either they get another author to do one or someone at the publisher
writes a teaser describing enough of the plot to hook a reader or they do both. It isn't
often that the blurb is a perfect way to describe a novel. But,
Door Number Three has one which fits it like a glove and I couldn't think of anything which
does a better job than the book's cover. Paraphrasing, a young
woman walks into a therapist's office and tells him that she has a year to convince one person that she is an
alien. If she does, she can stay on Earth. To prove her point, she exposes her breast which has a square nipple.
Interesting, eh?

But that is just a start. The book takes off when John Donelly, the therapist, wanders over to
Saul Lowe's place. There he, along with the rest of us, meet the book's most entertaining
character, Imish. Imish is a cardinal who makes me wonder about other author's attempts
at anthromorphism. For it is Imish who provides John with a Camel cigarette when he is faced
with a choice, a very important choice. Saul is about to tell John a story. But before, Saul
tells him to walk away with $10,000 in cash (without hearing the story), to stay and hear
the story (but John'll die a horrible death by Saul's hand if he breathes a word of what he is about
to hear) or John (along with Saul and Imish) can change the world by picking
Door Number Three. Whaddya think John chooses?
Cash, death or adventure? Which would you choose? Give that reader a prize...

If I had to describe Patrick O'Leary's prose style, I'd say he writes in colours. Roger
Zelazny did too although I saw his work more as pastels. O'Leary uses vivid primaries to sketch a scene,
no fooling around with much colour mixing. Each scene has a meticulousness I've rarely seen
in a first SF novel. I suspect that this book went through numerous drafts and I'd
guess that O'Leary writes in long hand such is his attention to detail and his ability
to turn a simple phrase into a breathtaking moment. Find this book, buy it and I'll bet you won't be
disappointed for it turns all your preconceived notions of time travel on their head.